News digest 3 September 2014

News digest 3 September 2014

03 September 2014

One story dominates the papers, namely the execution of another US journalist – Steven Sotloff by Isis extremists. A video was released last night with the further threat that a British captive – whose name is not being released – will be next. A solution looks far off, but prime minister David Cameron is currently chairing a meeting of Cobra looking at the government’s response, although his anti-terror measures still seem mired in confusion and there are some accusations in the press about the motives behind the prime minister’s actions.

In domestic political news the main story is the Clacton by-election with an Ashcroft poll showing that Ukip stands to poll 56 per cent of the vote, with the Tories on just 24 per cent. Even more bad news is that the by-election is being held on the prime minister’s birthday, doubt it will be a nice present for the PM.

And from fears of a right wing resurgence with Ukip entering parliament it looks like the Tories are trying to revert to type a spread fear of a left-wing takeover of the house. The Mail has a typical poor (and partly inaccurate) attack job on prospective Labour party parliamentary candidates who - surprise surprise – have links to Unite, or may even be members of the country’s biggest union. A unite response summed up the message simply: “We need more working people in parliament – people who understand the daily realities of living under this coalition government who have spent the last four years cutting the living standards of millions of people. What we need less of are the bankers' friends who frankly don’t give a damn about ordinary people and their struggles to keep their heads above water. It’s no surprise that with over six million trade union members across the UK who make up 13 per cent of the British electorate, that some of these trade union members will be selected to stand for parliament.”

And shifting to a possible Tory leadership contender, London mayor Boris Johnson seems to have thrown his toys out of his pram as he moans about plans for ‘Boris island airport’ being shelved, not sure he realises that if he stands for a west London constituency a number of people may actually work at the airport!

And finally from a clown to a philanthropist, and no it is not Tory supporting Gary Barlow saying sorry for avoiding taxes and promising to pay some back [too late] but the winner of a GQ award for charity work, and that winner is former prime minister Tony Blair. The award comes just days after Blair was castigated over his support for the hardline Kazakh president, one headline sums up the audience response as “baffled”, you and me both…